MKR’s Zana Hits Back: I’m Not The Villain!

Pitched with her husband Gianni Romano as My Kitchen Rules’ ‘Legal Eagles’, Zana Pali has been seen pulling faces at food around the dinner tables, saying she hates dirty glassware and unwashed salads and declaring, “If we can been people triple our age in the courtroom, we can beat anyone on My Kitchen Rules.”

Yet as some of their rivals—and MKR fans—call them out on their outspoken behavior, Zana insists their confidence is being misjudged.

Gianni and Zana. Photo: Supplied

“I don’t believe I am the villain. I don’t bully anyone on the show—we actually ended up with more friends than anyone on the show!” says the Melbourne lawyer, 24, while posing with Gianni at her parent’s Brighton home on Jan. 28. “There is a massive difference between critiquing the food and critiquing the person—and I am very anti-bullying.”

While Zana agrees she is not one to mince her words, she believes the couple’s confidence, and her desire to showcase her family’s Albanian heritage on Seven’s home-cooking hit, will be their recipe for success: “At the end of the day, if you’re not confident with your own abilities, you shouldn’t be there,” she says.

Adds fellow laywer Gianni, 27, “The biggest thing on the show is preparation—and we certainly talk the talk, but we’ll follow through and walk-the-walk.”

For WHO’s At Home photo shoot with MKR’s outspoken lawyers Zana and Gianni, pick up the new WHO, out now!